Final Fantasy Resonance is a big surprise. Square Enix is billing it as the franchise’s first HD-2D entry, and it looks as retro and stunning as you’d expect. But it’s also technically a port of an existing mobile gacha game called Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Will it really be any good? According to Square Enix, yes. The RPG publisher is calling it a “console-quality” experience in the mold of last year’s excellent Octopath Traveler 0 remake.
“Final Fantasy Resonance is based on the first story arc of the mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius,” wrote Square Enix in its press release for the newly announced game. “Far from just a direct port, it has been refined and extensively rebuilt as a full-fledged console-quality RPG experience.” It’ll be out October 22 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Switch, and Switch 2 for $50. Unlike its free-to-play predecessor, the new adaptation is ditching the gacha elements.
Beyond that, it’s hard to know just exactly how different Resonance will be from its source material. The publisher is calling it a “celebration of classic and modern Final Fantasy that evokes the beloved titles of yesteryear.” One way it does that is by letting you summon iconic characters from other games, like Final Fantasy VII‘s Cloud Strife and Final Fantasy VI‘s Terra Branford. Oh, Final Fantasy X‘s Tidus will be there too, alongside chocobos, airships, and espers, each rendered as classic sprite pixel art reminiscent of the SNES era.
The game looks incredible and it’s a turn-based RPG. Can Square Enix deliver on the brand-new experience being promised in the trailer above?
The game it’s based on, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, which first released in Japan back in 2015, would let players pay to summon random characters of varying rarity and power levels. It follows a knight named Rain who sets out on a journey to help a woman trapped in a crystal. Some of the art and music received praise, while the padded and grindy gameplay did not. Presumably, Final Fantasy Resonance can address those shortcomings by keeping all of the cool 16-bit nostalgia and ripping out all of the junk.
That’s essentially what Square Enix did with Octopath Traveler 0, a remake of anther one of its less-than-spectacular explorations of mobile gaming. While fans feared it would feel like a shallow mobile experience, the overhauled game ended up being a very meaty RPG experience that was one of 2025’s more surprising delights. I am hoping, hoping, HOPING Final Fantasy Resonance falls into a similar camp.